It’s finally that time of year again. You can feel summer is only a stones throw away and the fish have come on the chew quick, and it’s only going to get better.

Firstly, the water temperature has increased, but is still a little lower than what it was this time last year. Last month it was around 14.5-15.5°C on average and it seems the snapper are just slightly eluding us south Gippsland anglers, perhaps due to the water temperature.

At McLoughlins, the salmon have still been at Manns Beach entrance in huge numbers and anglers are catching them easily on metal lures and soft plastics on the run-out tide.

The biggest talk of the town had been the King George whiting bite that started last month. These things are big fat whiting and they’re biting on the run-out tide, especially on pipi and fresh squid baits.

Those big blue-spot flathead have just started coming on the chew and there’s been some quality flathead of 50cm caught on the sand flats so far. This style of fishing is only going to get better as the water temperature warms up another couple of degrees.

The Corner Inlet system has been riddled with slimy weed for the past month, and my experiences have so far been that it’s a lot worse during the run-in tide than it is on the run-out.

The shallower areas seem to be less prolific with weed than the deeper channels. Hopefully the weed will be gone soon.

In fishing news, the whiting have been the biggest talk at the moment. They are going extremely well and are absolute crackers in size with the average size being 37cm and up to 43cm in length. Pipis have been the standout bait, but we have been doing well on squid as well. The Port Albert channel has been as good a place as any to try.

The gummy sharks are going very well, and they seem to be biting an hour either side of the tide changes. Most of them are around the 3ft mark, but there are a few over 1m in length. Pilchards and squid have been the best baits, squid especially since huge amounts of calamari have entered the system. Over the next month it’s going to be all about the snapper, and I imagine we will have plenty to talk about.